A totally subjective ranking of socially clueless people by career October 15, 2012

I have no data to back this up. However if someone has the time and inclination, I’d love for them to get some and validate my hypothesis. I’m assuming the Autism Spectrum Quotient would be a good place to start.

There is a noticeable difference in the general cluelessness of people, and of science and engineering types in general. I’ve been pondering, however, if anyone has done a serious study of this phenomena and provided a ranking system. This might come in handy for non-sciency people, especially relatives.

I’m going to postulate a ranking, but please feel free to give me some feedback as to where you think this system falls down. And again, data is gold.

So the following are ordered from most to least clueless:

Physicists and mathematicians (and I’m sure they hate having to be in a group with another group)

Electrical engineers and economists (I’m just throwing in the economists because while I’ve noticed they aren’t socially clueless, there are a number who may as well be given the way they act)

Mechanical engineers and computer scientists

chemists and geophysicists (the problem with geophysicists is that there’s a huge standard deviation ranging from geologists to physicist…and a heavy dependency on how much alcohol they’ve consumed)

No, economists have this amazing way of being totally friendly while telling you that you’re full of crap. It’s an amazing balance, but it’s rather unnerving. Engineers tend to be easier to read in that they get upset when they tell you you’re full of crap (and it’s only sometimes meant personally)…

If more engineers and scientists realized that non-cluelessness could be accomplished through training, then maybe that would help!

Johnson O’Connor Research Foundation (www.jocrf.org) has a lot of data that correlates aptitudes with career choice. They don’t focus on “general cluelessness”, but I took the tests and found the results helpful, if not surprising.

This article talks just a bit about emotional intelligence and career interest self-report.